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New banner!!! And gorgeous photos!! I will never be grateful enough to E. for his outstanding contribution to this blog. I know, dear reader, that you are used to mediocre photos (don’t worry, they’ll return eventually) but for once I wanted to offer you something special…consider it your Christmas gift:) I’m delighted to post photos such as the ones above.

And while admiring the photos, I realised that things I thought only happened in Berlin have their replication in Barcelona (see second photo)…bike planking maybe?

I’ve got a lot of interesting and very dirty material for 2012 so get ready! In the meantime….have a lovely Sunday!! Oh, and I hope you like the new banner. My friends C. and D. helped me with the inspiration/Photoshop tricks.

I have a bicycle!!!!! And my Bicing season ticket has expired…perfect timing.

This is a big change in my life really. I feel like an adult now.

I’ve been going around with it (I gave it a name, of course: “Lighting”) for about a week. It’s very, very sweet. I love riding it…it’s FUN, fast, good. I always take the longest road to get to places, so I get to enjoy it more. To celebrate the good news my friend V. and I joined the Critical Mass group in Barcelona. What a fantastic idea: people who love bicycles get together once a month to conquer the city on two wheels. The experience of going through the biggest roads in the city, stopping traffic if necessary, it’s powerful. And everyone is having a good time. There’s all sort of people as well: fixie guys, business women with folding bikes, mountain bike freaks, and even guys and girls with Bicing! And this weird dude with a music stereo on the back of the bike playing tunes from the 90’s..(no kidding).

Regarding Lighting, it’s super sweet! I bought it for a very reasonable price at a local bicycle shop called Al Punt de Trobada in the middle of nowhere, in Poblenou. I was in the area because we are preparing a documentary there. It was such a nice image: there were three men working in the shop. One was like 80 years old (seriously), the other was about 40 and then there was a young guy. I went in because I wanted to get a business card, just to remember the shop and the young guy asked me if I needed any help…then I said I was actually looking for a bicycle and he showed me Lighting, said its price, and I was like: I’ll take it. I had found it. Then I tried and the frame was the right size, the brakes had the perfect fit, and it was sooo fast.

**Update: thanks to Joan, a reader who pointed out that Alkon is not American as I thought, but from Badalona, a city near Barcelona. Apparently Alkon has now moved to the town of Palafolls, 60km outside Barcelona. Maybe one day I’ll be able to visit the man who made Lighting….